IBS Enterprise Overview

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview2

Contents 2

Introduction 4

Supply Management 5Purchasing Management 5Supplier Rebates 6Supplier Marketing Support 6Supplier Delivery Schedules 6Inventory Control 7

Logistics, Assembly & Service 8Project Management 8Finite Planning 9Dangerous Goods 9Assembly 9Warehouse Location Management 9Advanced Warehouse & Operation 10Multi Distribution Centre 10

Demand management 11Sales Management 11Customer Delivery Schedules 12Customer Rebates 12Request and Returns: for the Sharpest Customer Service 12Customer Relation Management 13Product Configuration 13

IBS Manufacturing 14Production scheduling 14Manufacturing alternative products (co-products) 14Tools and fixtures 14Manufacturing orders 14Subcontract operations 15Manufacturing order reporting 15Quality control reporting 15Integration to IBS Planner View 16Manufacturing order block order handling 16Preventive maintenance and integration to IBS Service 16Activity-oriented product costing 16

Contents

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Distribution Financials 16General Ledger 16Accounts Payable 17Accounts Receivable 17Asset Management 18Sundry Invoicing 18Cash flow Manager 18

IBS Business Intelligence 19IBS RPM 20Alert Management 20

IBS Financial, Sales & Operating Planning 21Advanced Sales and Operations Planning Solutions 21Planner View 22Demand Planning 23Supply Planning 23

IBS Supply Chain Integration & Collaboration 25IBS Integrator 25IBS NetStore 25IBS Mobility Solutions 26IBS Output Solutions 26Workflow 27

IBS Dynaman 27Complete process control 27Value-added activities 28Features for advanced functions 29Transparency in operations 29Flexible rules engine 29

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview4

Our application software suite, called IBS Enterprise, streamlines, automates and accelerates the critical supply chain processes that determine your success: from inventory planning, purchasing and supplier management through warehouse optimization, value-added services, demand management and returns processing.

IBS Enterprise combines six powerful solution areas into one comprehensive business platform:

IBS Enterprise helps you transform your supply chain from a cost that simply needs to be managed, into your key competitive weapon - something we call Distribution Excellence - and ensures you control your entire operation from order to cash, and wring every penny of margin from every process.

For more advanced warehousing needs, IBS Dynaman gives companies full control over their warehouse and distribution center, and yard operations. It ensures strict process control, accurate data capturing and complete visibility across the boundaries of manufacturing and distribution. Due to its open architecture, it allows easy integration with the operations of supply chain partners.

IBS Dynaman embodies functionalities to support the most demanding warehouse operations. It has advanced modules for inbound, storage, outbound and ‘value-added services’ processes, as well as advanced inventory management such as customer-owned and/or supplier consigned items. It is well suited for high volume, time critical and complex logistic environments.

All IBS software – including our specific vertical solutions – is built on a flexible architecture, which ensures that the system you deploy to run your business is always the most flexible, scalable, available, portable and secure that there is.

Specifically, the IBS architecture provides five core benefits:

Flexibility – No two distribution business are exactly alike, so a flexible and adaptable architecture that tailors to your processes should be a pre-requisite, along with ease of use and simple, powerful integration with other systems and applications

Scalability – You need an architecture that can grow with you, and that you know will handle whatever it needs to handle. Whether it is millions of transactions a day or huge product databases, your systems should never be the bottleneck, because that will mean poor customer service, and lost business. The IBS solution is designed to handle the most demanding of distribution needs from high volume transaction throughput to huge data volumes, it scales to meet your needs.

Availability – You need to be sure that your business runs. Knowing that the systems that support it run too, means that they must run 24/7, 365 days a year. Downtime means lost orders and dissatisfied customers, which is why the IBS Orchestrate architecture is designed to keep your systems running, come what may.

Security – Supplier and customer databases combined with SKU data in all its forms are your lifeblood. IBS security definitions and audit controls help protect that data from attack, loss or malpractice. And every transaction – order, purchase, stock pick and the rest - must be trackable in real time and traceable historically.

Portability – Today’s systems must never be tomorrows legacy, which is why IBS has the architecture that ensures that whatever underlying platforms you choose to run on, whether on-premise, hosted/managed services or software-as-a-service (SaaS), we can provide the solutions, and technologies that ease any transition, including connectivity, migration and data conversion tools.

Introduction

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Your supplier portfolio is a strategic asset, and you understand that you need to manage it like one.

IBS Supply Management software helps you identify and work with the best suppliers, plan, forecast and manage

inventories, establish the best pricing and incentive payments, handle all purchase order processing, manage delivery schedules, and much more. It aligns the best possible customer service with the lowest practical inventory costs.

As part of IBS Enterprise, IBS Supply Management is the most fully featured supplier relationship management (SRM) and procurement solution for distributors and wholesalers, covering:

• ‘Smart’ demand and supply planning

• Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

• Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) across locations

• Efficient inventory management

• Pricing management

• Purchase order processing

• Vendor managed inventory (VMI) services ...and much more

The benefitsUsing IBS Supply Management software, you will be able to:

• Reduce your purchase costs and lead-times through extended supplier collaboration

• Streamline purchasing with sourcing, pricing and inventory modeling

• Eradicate costly inventory buffer stocks and days

• Boost customer service through fewer shortages, delivery errors and fill-rate drops

• Optimize available-to-promise levels for better customer service

• Provide highly accurate forecasts to suppliers and management.

Purchasing ManagementFor wholesale distributors, purchasing is a process-intensive discipline. Get your processes right and you’re flying; get them wrong and your entire operation is stalled.

IBS Purchasing Management automates and streamlines all the critical purchasing processes, from requisition and quote management through ordering, quality assurance, contracts and replenishment.

As part of IBS Enterprise, the software offers the richest purchasing management functionality on the market, covering:

• Invoice/order matching

• Automated Purchase suggestion

• Purchase Order accruals

• PO limits and approval workflow

• Quality Assurance controls

• RFQ generation and management

• Supplier agreement integration

• Supplier sourcing rules.

And, because the Enterprise solution is fully integrated, your purchasing becomes an intelligent, responsive and transparent part of your operation.

The benefitsOur purchasing management software helps you:

• Streamline purchasing for maximum efficiency

• Automate and accelerate processes that were once manual

• Minimize errors that waste time and money

• Drive down costs through process efficiency and keener purchasing

• Boost customer service with fewer shortages, delivery errors and fill-rate drops

• Improve forecasting to suppliers and management.

Supply Management

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Supplier RebatesFailing to identify, claim-for and receive potential rebate payments from suppliers is tantamount to throwing cash out the window.

Supplier rebates are an essential part of the bottom line, so they need to be quickly, accurately and automatically tracked and invoiced. The automation of the process can be tricky as rebates are settled retrospectively, but you still need to have control of expected rebates. IBS Supplier rebates is the fully integrated and automated solution that makes sure you always get the rebates you are entitled to, while simultaneously reducing your operational expenses.

Highlights• Dynamic rebates for different regions and industries

• Rebate statistics

• Generate and maintain claims

• Automated process

• Accrual to Financials

• Claim creation through A/R and A/P

The benefits• Better margin through better supplier pricing offers

• Always aware of entitled rebates

• Reduced expenses with less administration cost

Supplier Marketing SupportIBS Supplier Marketing Support automates joint marketing agreements, checks impact on margins and handles rebates and administration.

Does the supplier benefit when you promote their product? You bet they do. This is why distribution contracts increasingly include clauses that allow you to reclaim marketing costs from your supplier.

But with thousands of products and potentially hundreds of suppliers you manage, co-marketing is more than a little complicated. But with IBS Supplier Marketing Support, you will have a solution that manages supplier agreements, calculates rebates and handles the administration for you.

Distribution Supplier ManagementManufacturers and suppliers like it when you promote their products because, often, you have the closer relationship to your customers. You may specialize in a particular market sector, or deal with companies of a particular size or type. This is one of the areas where you add value: understanding the needs of your special brand of customer.

Distribution Marketing AgreementsSuppliers may offer to pay a share of the marketing in a variety of ways: discounts on the price, rebates on each item you sell, average costing. They may also offer your customers a discount as part of a marketing campaign and you need to make sure that you pass on that discount.

When you are already operating to tight margins, managing costs and prices for marketing can seem like a dangerous exercise.

IBS Supplier Marketing Support makes it all straightforward:

• It automatically applies marketing agreements and tags product lines.

• It calculates rebates and communicates with payment software to optimize cash flow.

• It ensures that discounts are applied to sales planning, quotes, orders and invoices.

• It creates reports so that you can analyze the effectiveness of co-marketing.

• It checks the impact on margins and calculates the true margin on products by including the supplier’s rebate/chargeback.

And if you or your suppliers come up with a new business model for joint marketing, Supplier Marketing Support is ready. It will map any reclaim system into the supplier and sales communication processes.

Supplier Marketing Support is fully integrated with the financial applications so the changes to invoicing and book-keeping are automatic. If there is a mistake or a discrepancy about a deal, the system also lets you reverse a rebate claim to keep the paperwork up-to-date.

Supplier Delivery SchedulesIBS Supplier Delivery Schedules takes inventory management to a whole new level with reduced costs and fast ROI.

Managing inventory is the key to any distribution or wholesale business. But you continually face a dilemma: the more stock you carry, the better you are able to respond to demand. But the less stock your carry, the lower your costs.

A solution widely used in the automotive sector, now being adopted by other industries, involves process automation so suppliers can share the burden.

IBS Supplier Delivery Schedules uses the EDI industry standards of ANSI or EDIFACT to send forecast information to your suppliers. They plan their production and delivery around your forecasts so that you can reduce inventory and therefore costs, without hindering your ability to meet customer demand. Additional features include:

Supplier Managed InventoryIn Supplier (or Vendor) Managed Inventory (SMI), our software sends suppliers sales statistics in the correct format, together with your stock on hand and min/max inventory levels. This is called a gross forecast. Using this method, the supplier’s system calculates which products are required and when, and also sorts out the order processing for you.

If you are not able to negotiate an SMI deal with your suppliers, or you would rather keep control over the ordering process, you can use a net forecast. Using this method, you would tell your suppliers what information you want and when you want it. IBS’ Supplier Delivery Schedule software manages it for you by monitoring your inventory and sales figures, and calculating the best time and quantities to order.

Either way, you can keep your inventory to a minimum and costs in control without losing the flexibility your customers look for.

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Advanced Information OnlyThere is a third option available is designed to enhance the traditional ordering process by giving your suppliers advanced warning of your needs. This works just like a net forecast but the supplier does not treat it as an order. The forecast is for information only to help the supplier plan better, which will reduce lead-time and perhaps even lower the purchase price. Purchases must be negotiated and confirmed in the normal way.

The standard data interchange ensures that delivery schedules are synchronized so there are no errors. Delivery schedules can also be published on the web using IBS Web Supply Manager.

Inventory ControlIBS Inventory Control improves cash flow by maximizing stock turnover, reduces costs and the capital you must tie up in stock.

In wholesale distribution, the success or failure of your business has a one-to-one relationship with the accuracy of your inventory calculations. Faulty lead-time figures, for example, can throw off the whole supply chain. Costs get out of hand and customers get poor service.

That is why Inventory Control uses several different methods for analyzing your stock and makes it more likely you will spot problems early. It is a sophisticated way to manage inventory enabling you to fine tune your business. Inventory Control shows you:

• Volume value and movability

• Excess stock warnings

• Visibility into seasonal or other trends

• Inventory turnover

• Lead-time analysis and adjustment

• A measure of the service you are getting from suppliers and you are giving customers

• An analysis of the variation in demand

• Alerts of unexpected deviations from your plans

• Automatic purchase suggestions.

Increasing inventory turnover will reduce stock, but the way set up automatic replenishment of stock can have a profound effect on your costs. Inventory Control helps you make the best decision for your business:

• It will give you forecasts of demand based on historical information, from your customers’ forecasts or from demand-driven manufacturing systems

• It helps you set EOQ (economic order quantities) and calculates the best times to order new inventory. It deploys calculation rules according to the product type you specify. But you can adapt the rules to your own needs and simulate their effect before you put them into practice

• It steers you towards appropriate safety stock levels for different products based on their lead-times and variations in demand.

Replenishment suggestionsInventory Control helps you hone the management of your stock by suggesting when orders should be placed. These can be set to automatically trigger purchases or you can review and select each one individually. Normally, the suggestions will be based on a periodic analysis of demand, but critical or high-value products can be controlled tightly by continuously reviewing their stock levels.

You may want to share the burden with your suppliers. Because IBS Inventory Control uses the industry-standard EDI (electronic data interchange) format, suppliers can monitor your inventory levels and the demand forecasts you provide and automatically replenish your stock. See Supplier Delivery Schedules for more details of how IBS software helps you run SMI (supplier managed inventory).

SimulationYou only realize the amazing power of Inventory Control when you start to simulate the impact of changes. You can use different service levels, lead-times and costs and simulate the effect on turnover and the capital you have tied up in your inventory.

You can also manipulate order quantities analyze how they compare to your actual sales and stock levels. You can also see if cost savings from supplier discounts make a real difference to cost price and individual product margins.

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview8

Your logistics processes are vital to the performance of your whole operation. That’s why IBS distribution software

helps expose and rectify every profit drain and bottleneck, as well as helps you introduce profitable value-added services such as assembly, installations, after sales and maintenance.

IBS Logistics, Assembly and Services solutions optimize in real-time all the processes for goods handling –in the warehouse, across warehouses and on the assembly line – from the simplest of storage centers to the most complex multi-site warehouse facilities, distribution centers and assembly plants. IBS Logistics, Assembly and Services will help with:

• Streamlining receiving, including cross-docking options

• Smart automated put-away suggestions

• Dynamic warehouse replenishment and optimal pick-path

• Multi-level warehouses and distribution centers

• Product configuration with managed component combinations

• Profitable after sales service including service agreements

• Preventive service and urgent repair handling

The benefitsIBS Logistics, Assembly and Services software helps you:

• Reduce operating expenses - by optimizing warehouse processes and staff productivity

• Maximize revenue and increase customer loyalty - by offering unique value-added services

• Optimize inventory-levels - by integrating demand-driven manufacturing and real-time warehouse management

• Improve margins - by introducing margin-protecting value-added services, such as product assembly, after-sales support and maintenance services.

Project ManagementProject Management helps you control a project from definition to delivery, keeping costs in check and maximizing revenue.

Bidding on large contracts is tempting because they bring in cash. But the competition can be fierce and so you end up cutting the margins to the bone just to get the order. The skill is controlling your projects costs so that the margins don’t disappear altogether.

Project Management allows you to control the process from beginning to end:

• Project definition and structure

• Quotation

• Planning and production

• Budgets and cost control

• Purchasing

• Delivery invoicing

The software works equally well whether you are tackling small local projects or large complex global ones, Project Management is completely scalable. Any project can run across multiple financial years and the Project Management solution will keep accounting in synch automatically.

Cost controlThe budget is set when the project is defined and the margins are calculated to make your quote as competitive as possible. Project Management links each element to a cost code so you can see how it performs compared with the budget.

The software keeps track of changes: both changes in order quantities agreed with the customer and budget transfers between cost codes. Costs and cost controls are automatically calculated helping you manage the project to maximize revenue.

A core feature within Project Management is the ability to give you better control over project-based purchase orders and

Logistics, Assembly & Service

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invoices. Additionally, you will be able to follow-up on key cost or revenue elements within the project for internal reporting or to review with your customers.

Finite PlanningFinite Planning helps you deal with bottlenecks to ensure that your production is geared to serve customers with the best revenue potential. Business is going well. Your customers are happy so they keep coming back: revenue goes up. You manage your inventory well: costs go down. That improves your margins and the money you earn goes back into growing the business. But then the production line suddenly comes under intense pressure.

It’s easy to plan on the assumption you have infinite resources, but in the real world you don’t. There are limits on space and time, on the number of people available to do jobs for you, and on the ability of suppliers to react to your needs. You analyze and adjust, but there are always bottlenecks.

Finite Planning enables you to identify those bottlenecks and helps you work out what to do about them. It lets you try out changes and simulate their effect on the way your business works. It helps you decide whether it is better to let some areas become temporarily overloaded or to reschedule orders so that delivery times are longer, but more reliable.

In recognizing that your resources are finite, Finite Planning gives you more accurate delivery times, and improves efficiency. It enables you to make better decisions when things get tight.

• In MRP (materials requirements planning) it lets you prioritize one job over another and recalculates the bottlenecks based on the exact time a proposal becomes a formal order.

• When back-to-back sales and manufacturing orders are created automatically, Finite Planning will check for restrictions in dates when items can be delivered and that the delivery date reflects this.

• You can reschedule to ease overloads and give priority to the most important customers or the most pressing orders.

• Ideas generated by Finite Planning to alleviate the effects of bottlenecks can be simulated and the results viewed graphically in Planner View. The same tool can be used to view orders as they progress, so you can compare real life with your simulations.

Dangerous GoodsDangerous Goods functionality creates the documentation needed for handling and transporting hazardous products or materials.

Most countries have laws governing how dangerous goods should be handled and transported. If you are selling these sorts of products, there are requirements to produce special data sheets and emergency cards.

IBS Dangerous Goods creates MSDS (material safety data sheets) for a wide range of countries including the EU and the US. It also creates TREM (transport emergency) cards, which will be required before they can be shipped to customers.

Since you are legally responsible for knowing where dangerous goods are sold, the software flags incoming goods with an MSDS identifier and automatically tracks their sale to customers. If appropriate you can add drawings as an attachment to the MSDS. The MSDS, labels and customer letters can be printed automatically along with standard freight documents.

When a customer buys dangerous goods from you for the first time, a letter must be sent to them independently of the delivery informing them how to handle the goods. Because Dangerous Goods is part of the IBS Enterprise family of products, it gives you the ability to have those letters created in their language of choice. And, if a shipment crosses borders, TREM cards will automatically be created in the language of every country it passes through.

AssemblyThe Assembly functionality gives a wholesale distribution company the ability to include value-added services as part of their everyday business, such as assembly, kitting and light manufacturing.

Many distribution businesses generate revenue with light manufacturing. Assembling products as part of the supply chain can reduce cost price and improve customer service. Often it is a chance to innovate. Because you work closely with your customers you may spot a gap in the market or a way to make their lives easier.

Assembly is a manufacturing planning and control tool designed specifically for distribution or wholesale businesses. It uses similar functionality to Manufacturing, but is simplified for assembly or light manufacturing. It gives you the power of pull planning, which is ideal for demand-driven assembly or flow production. Components and materials are ordered based on demand for the finished assembly. This allows you to manage the inventory of parts and finished products with the same precision as you manage the rest of your business.

In fact, distributors who do some light manufacturing often find they have an edge because they understand the principles of inventory control so well.

Designed especially for wholesale distribution, IBS Assembly allows you to plan and document the assembly process, and to control the production of assemblies within your distribution flow. It includes features specially designed for distributors who manufacture:

• It matches manufacturing and sales orders to speed up the shipping of assemblies.

• It allows for replanning where there is a combination of manufactured and inventory items on the sales order. It takes order priority into account.

• You can check availability all the way down from assembled items in stock to the components used to make them.

• It makes it easy to do manufacturing tear-downs: taking parts allocated to the assembly lines and allocating them back to inventory to be sold as components

Warehouse Location ManagementIBS Warehouse Location Management software helps you maximize the space to reduce costs and improve customer service. The distribution business is full of dilemmas. One of the trickiest is space management. The tighter you pack your inventory, the less space you need and – in theory - the lower your costs. More space, however, means items move less and are easier to find. This impacts your customer service. You can’t win. Or can you?

IBS software records and directs picks and puts to ensure you deliver the right items at the right time. It safeguards vital

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customer service levels with tangible efficiency. For example, multiple orders can be picked, packed and dispatched in one simple process to improve both efficiency and accuracy.

One technique used to turn fast moving products around quickly is cross-docking. It automatically checks sales orders against purchase orders and ships products out to customers before they need to be formally stored.

Because Warehouse Location Management is part of the IBS Enterprise family of products, it can access sales figures, interpret customer demand and assign space to fast movers. Also, it knows which products have reached critically low inventory levels so your people can prioritize incoming goods.

Improved margins come from intelligent decisionsWarehouse Location Management helps you make the best decisions to maximize revenue, minimize costs and keep margins at their best possible level.

• It helps you work out whether it is best to store new stock in empty spaces or with older stock of similar types.

• It suggests storage ideas where appropriate to speed up picking.

• It helps you understand whether items received from suppliers are fast-moving and should go into the primary picking area or have longer lead-times and should go into bulk storage.

RF and barcodesWarehouse Location Management supports accuracy with paperless picking and scanning. RF ensures priority of orders and customer pick-ups. The batching feature distributes orders based on the equipment required to process them most efficiently.

RF tags can carry a variety of information including weight, size and which storage criteria apply. When items are scanned by your warehouse people, they can also check that the appropriate storage methods are being used.

Visualizing the informationWarehouse Location Management is integrated with IBS’ Planner View, software which allows you to look at information graphically and in a variety of other formats. It enables you to plan deliveries to and from the warehouse, simulate storage options and analyze the success of your existing decisions.

Advanced Warehouse & OperationIBS Dynaman is a warehouse management system (WMS) that gives you complete control over your manufacturing and distribution processes.

Whether you’re a manufacturer or a distributor, you’re under pressure like never before. All the players in the supply chain want low inventory levels, which means that any error in quantity, quality, or timing costs you money. Fierce competition means companies are crossing over the boundaries between manufacturing and distribution. You need a clear idea of what’s happening, so transparency and collaboration are paramount. IBS Dynaman helps with:

• Vendor managed inventory (VMI): to manage consignment stock

• Make to order (MTO): plan direct delivery as well as opportunistic shipping

• Reverse logistics: support customer good returns and manage further processing.

It also offers direct line feed and supply-in-line sequence to streamline your production processes.

IBS Dynaman combines warehouse management and manufacturing execution functions to support and control end-to-end processes. And, because of its open architecture, it can be integrated easily with supply chain partners’ operations.

Inventory Tracking• Ensure accurate inventory records by applying different

counting strategies. Automatically log discrepancies for investigation.

• Stock can be tracked by item, expiration date, lot, or serial number, so you can keep an eye on things easily.

• Allows, through public warehouse support, third party logistics service providers to track different activities for each owner.

• Tracks the performance of machines and people to identify any problems.

Process management• Controls in-bound processes with arrival management,

reception, and put-away control.

• Supports most demanding pick-pack-ship activities including: wave management; packing, consolidation, and staging; and loading and shipping.

• Automatically assigns the tasks to the right person and the right equipment, as appropriate.

• Functions such as work order scheduling, material issue, and machine integration ensure efficiency and limit delays and idle time.

Reporting• Get real-time information about your production processes.

• Enforce compliance with government regulations or customer quality standards, so nothing slips through the net.

• Access a visual dashboard that allows you to zoom in on any problem areas and interact in real-time with your processes.

• Have accurate data capture and complete visibility

Dynaman also supports more advanced strategies such as task interleaving to maximize efficiency, cartonization, dock and yard management, cross-docking, work force management, multi-level container handling, and returnable packaging. And it does this straight out of the box, so no need to buy any extras.

Multi Distribution CentreMulti Distribution Center software brings the global inventory of your business into the sight of local distribution. As your wholesale distribution business grows or you become part of an international group of companies, it is easy to lose sight of what made you great in the first place: responding effectively to your

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customers. It’s simply harder to manage resources the bigger you get, isn’t it? Not anymore.

Multi Distribution Center makes it as easy to manage a global operation as a single warehouse. And it gives you an edge. You can beat smaller rivals because now you have access to inventory from your parent company’s factory in Shanghai or your French subsidiary’s warehouse in Bordeaux. Meanwhile, your competition is having to ask their customers for six week leadtimes.

Multi Distribution Center gives you a view from your desk into the warehouses of all your partner companies around the world. If you find what you are looking for, you can have it sent to your warehouse or ship directly to your customer. The software will handle the paperwork and other transactions such as:

• Order documentation.

• Invoicing.

• Logistics.

• Financial transactions.

• Currency issues.

• Language.

You can also use Multi Distribution Center to operate a central warehouse system which implifies supply side planning. The central distributor deals with external suppliers and provides inventory on demand to local warehouses. In fact, Multi Distribution Center can help you deal with any combination of central and local warehousing so that you can find the business model that suits you best.

How you serve your customers ultimately means how well you will succeed, and excellent Demand Management is the means by which you will achieve it.

Satisfying your customers’ requirements is vital to wholesale and distribution success. With IBS Demand Management you can increase profitable sales by planning, executing and following up customer transactions from marketing and fulfillment, through to after-sales support and efficient returns handling.

Sales ManagementYour sales processes determine your profitability. Mistakes in receiving, managing and fulfilling orders are a primary cause of profit erosion (not to mention damage to customer satisfaction). It’s not just about how easy you are to do business with. It’s also about how efficiently and effectively you translate each and every order into cash and profit.

IBS Sales Management lets you take control of every process and sub-process that drives your sales department, with rich functionality, including:

• Cash, commission, currency, discount and credit management

• Gross profit control and profit check

• Lost sales tracking

• Order structure, configuration, summary and settlement

• Sales order allocation, delivery and invoicing

• Order scheduling, surcharge, price & tax handling

• Sourcing policy management

• Vendor managed inventory

It starts with intelligent sales order entry, then proceeds through a seamless chain of automated, auditable processes that lead to a happy customer and a profitable transaction.

Demand management

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The benefitsOur sales management software helps you:

• Delight customers with fast, accurate order processing and fulfillment

• Accelerate order-to-cash and maximize cash flow

• Automate processes to speed cycle times

• Protect profits with rule-driven processing

• Minimize errors that waste time and money

• Drive down costs through process efficiency

• Enforce policy from order through sourcing and delivery

Customer Delivery SchedulesIBS Customer Delivery Schedules boosts inventory management, giving you access to new customers and a fast ROI.

Companies in the automotive sector realized they get better service if they share demand forecasts with their suppliers and set up automatic ordering. This system is called customer delivery schedules and works so well that wholesale distributors in other industries are starting to adopt it.

From your point of view, it means you need to have the technology in place to work with these customers. But customer delivery schedules also help you manage inventory more effectively. That means you can reduce costs and improve margins. The investment pays for itself fast.

Customer Delivery Schedules uses the industry standard data formats such as ANSI and EDIFACT to receive forecast information from your customer. You can then plan purchasing and delivery around their forecasts so that you can reduce inventory and therefore costs. It has the added benefit of enabling you to work more closely with your customers.

Operating in the mode that suits your customerIn VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory — in this case you are the supplier), the system receives customer’s sales statistics and their stock on hand and min-max inventory levels. This is called a gross forecast. IBS software uses this information to calculate which products are required and when they should be delivered. It automatically creates orders and your customer is automatically replenished.

Your customer may not use VMI or may prefer to control the ordering process, in which case they use a net forecast. Here you get an automated message telling you what to supply and when in the standard data format. IBS software handles those requests automatically and enables the impact on your inventory management.

With either option, you can keep your inventory to a minimum and costs in control. All the while, you keep your customers happy by using a system that improves their materials management.

Communicating critical supply informationCustomer Delivery Schedules links your customers’ data to the ordering process and to your picking and delivery system. Paperwork and plans are created to make sure deliveries happen on time.

However, even though you are allowing your customers to say how they would like to be supplied, you retain control. The software calculates lead times and delivery dates. If there is a

mismatch between the calculated dates and the customer’s requirements, warnings are automatically generated telling your customer there may be problems and allowing you to manage the problem. Warnings do not stop the automated ordering process.

Customer RebatesBy automating your customer rebate management your customers always gets the right price for them, which ensures higher customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

Managing rebates effectively is very resource-intensive. IBS Customer Rebates fully automates all the processes required to deliver an accurate, integrated rebate capability. This saves administration expenses, reduces costly errors and allows you to control margin and keep track of expected rebates cost.

Highlights• Dynamic rebates for different regions and industries

• Rebate statistics

• Profit and margin calculations

• Generate and maintain payments

• Automated process

• Accrual to Financials

The benefits• Greater customer loyalty

• Better control of margins

• Always show entitled customer rebates

• Less administration costs

• Know when and where cash is being spent

Request and Returns: for the Sharpest Customer ServiceYour customers may come to you because you give them a good price and great service. In day-to-day business, they may never get to know you that well. But their interest in you grows the second there’s a problem.

Research shows that a business that handles complaints well is more likely to retain a customer’s business than one that never receives a complaint. Why? A relationship is built during the returns process. And what happens to a relationship when a complaint is handled badly? Well...it soon ends.

IBS software ensures complaints are managed and customers retained. It shouldn’t be a bolt-on: it’s a mainstay of your business.

Automating your response to customersIf you sell thousands of products to thousands of customers you need an automated complaints process. They need to be able to return a poor quality product and you need to be able to replace or repair it quickly. You can’t send the new product with the same flaw — customers find that very frustrating — and you can’t invoice them for the replacement if they have already paid.

IBS automates the returns and requests process to make the experience as smooth as possible for your customer and intuitive for you:

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• It alerts you of returns and gets your approval to send a replacement or do repairs.

• It tells your customer service staff what’s going on.

• It manages all the actions and paperwork needed to get a replacement to your customer as quickly as possible.

• If you decide on a percentage refund to compensate your customer, the system will manage that too.

• It tracks the original product from supplier through your system to identify the source of the problem.

• If a batch of products exhibit similar problems it will initiate a recall and monitors their return to the original manufacturer (you can set quality control and return criteria within the system).

• If a product is put back on the shelf, the quality control process lets your staff know if it’s fit for resale.

• It also reports on trends in quality problems so that you can continually improve your business.

Customer Relation ManagementWhether you’re a manufacturer or a distributor, you’re under pressure like never before. Ever-tightening margins add pressure to generate, develop and maintain customer relationships to secure both their loyalty and business. IBS CRM is a complete customer relationship management (CRM) suite including marketing, sales, and service capabilities that give you fast, familiar, and flexible tools to grow more profitable customer relationships.

IBS CRM is powered by Sugar CRM and is a seamless component of the IBS Enterprise Solution. It enables a 360-degree view of your customers and includes best-practice CRM to carry out the key value drivers for profitability in distribution, including raising revenue, lowering costs and increasing margins.

With IBS CRM you can:

Find customers• Identify and target the most profitable customers

• Build plans to market effectively to them

• Lead generation management

• Campaign personalization by customer or customer segment

• Create Sales budgets that can be transferred to demand forecast

Win customers• Provide your customer with a seamless and precise

fulfillment process

• Extensive Quotation handling

• Automated multi-channel sales order processing

• Available-to-promise with dynamic sourcing options

• Customer self-service online, 24/7

• Extensive e-business suite

Grow customers• With excellent service and a 360-degree customer view

• After sales service

• Smooth, automated returns

• Automated customer rebates

• Discounts, incentives and sales promotions

The benefits• More profitable, long-term customer relationships

• Reduced transaction costs through better business processes, including web ordering/tracking and customer self-service

• Better order values and profits via advanced pricing management technologies

• Increased customer service levels

Product ConfigurationProduct Configuration is an intelligent way to build custom designs without proliferating part numbers and management files.

An important revenue stream for a modern wholesale distribution business comes from giving your customers choice, tailoring your products to their exact needs. The trick is to manage the process so that the supply side of your business keeps up.

Product Configuration enables you to respond quickly to customer requests. You can create one-off products from standard parts without having to add a new product to your files. The system helps staff – particularly those with limited technical knowledge - get to grips with the order of parts and the assembly process.

Say, for example, you wanted to sell PCs with a range of memory options, various hard disks and a number of different screens. In a traditional distribution management system, you would have to think of all the possible combinations in advance and create part numbers and paperwork for each.

With Product Configuration, you enter a set of rules about how a product can be assembled. For example, you could define the largest size of memory your PC’s motherboard would take, and the discrete sizes in which the memory is available. Product Configuration then enables you to build a product using any combination of parts to suit the customer. It may even come up with a new product idea.

Managing custom distributionYou can use the software to test out different options and generate quotes. If you think a custom design will be sufficiently popular, Product Configuration will create a new standard product for you.

If the customer decides to go ahead, Product Configuration can either generate an order structure where your warehouse personal gathering and package the different products in stock, or if it is a more complex product that requires production, then the system automatically creates a BOM (bill of materials), BOR (bill of routing), operation lists and pricing.

Checking marginsYou can calculate cost price and item margins using IBS Product Configuration. You can also see margins by customer, so you can check that offering special products is actually making you money. Armed with this information, you can go back and adjust the rules for product configuration to maximize revenue from this side of your business.

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IBS Manufacturing software is specifically developed for the supply chain environment, where flow-oriented and demand-driven manufacturing meets customer demands in a dynamic market. Make the right decisions at every stage while you reduce lead-times, increase delivery reliability and improve customer service.

IBS Manufacturing is a comprehensive solution for companies that must meet exacting market demands with efficiency, accuracy and reliable operational control. The solution is designed to adapt to your assembly and/or manufacturing business processes. IBS Manufacturing consists of the following applications: Assembly, MRP, Sub-contracting, Pull Planning, Production Planning & Scheduling, Tools and Fixtures, Block Orders, Group Orders, and Alternative Products.

Production schedulingIBS Manufacturing provides a variety of planning methods to fit a variety of manufacturing requirements, with everything from pull planning concepts for repetitive product manufacturing to MRPII planning. All these techniques can be used side-by-side as required.

Pull-planningFor repetitive manufacturing, two different methods can be used:

• Shortage analysis focuses on products and components subject to or risking shortage, within the defined planning horizon

• Priority analysis is based on the coverage time (in days) that an actual product has within the planning horizon, taking into account the demand, order, stock availability and forecast. The design of the priority value (cover time) is user-defined, making it possible to create customer-defined planning methods.

MRPIIIBS Manufacturing also supports a traditional forward material and capacity planning method, which is sometimes more appropriate to use.

MRP order proposals are all prioritized from the end-product down to the lowest component level. The highest demand (sales order) is then handled as the most important proposal, and the forecast is handled as a lower priority. This method focuses on fulfilling demand in the right order.

Because MRP also creates re-scheduling proposals, it is possible to set a filter to avoid unnecessary times on re-scheduling proposals that differ by, for example, two days.

Rough-cut disposal check on material and capacity at sales order entryWhen availability for material and/or capacity is checked, it is always checked against normal stock. If no such stock/capacity exists within the item’s planning time, and an availability check is then performed on the product’s BOM (bill of material) and/or BOR (bill of routing), and ‘best delivery date’ is calculated.

Manufacturing alternative products (co-products)Manufacturers are sometimes not sure what an end-product will be. A producer of porcelain, for example, might have an end result of either a first-class or a second-class product, or even a combination of the two. To resolve this issue, IBS Enterprise lets you produce alternative products or co-products as a result of a manufacturing order.

Alternative products are defined in the manufacturing structure file as possible items to be produced, as a specified percentage or quantity that can be produced as an alternative product. The manufacturing reception function is used to define whether the product is the planned end-product or an alternative that should be received to stock.

Tools and fixturesFor improved planning production, IBS Manufacturing includes functionality that allocates tools in time for their use in manufacturing order operations. This tools and fixtures functionality also includes the ability to calibrate a tool when it has been used for a specified number of orders, produced pieces or hours.

Manufacturing ordersIBS Manufacturing provides several ways to create manufacturing orders, offering flexibility in set-up and operational performance.

Manufacturing Order entryManufacturing orders can be entered manually, copied from existing orders, initiated by and connected to a customer order, or released from an order proposal. Manual entry lets you copy information from the bill of material and operations structure, and that information can then be complemented or changed.

Manufacturing Order proposalsManufacturing order proposals are generated at the requirements planning stage if MRP is used, and can be easily changed, cancelled and/or released into a production order.

When pull-planning is used, the order proposal will correspond to the material shortage and priority analyses. Such analyses show, in priority sequence (most critical first), actual material shortages and workloads for resources for a customer order and/or forecast-controlled products.

Lead-time calculation/availability checkThe system provides two different lead-times for produced items: one for planning purposes and one for sales order availability check. This makes it possible to secure the sales order availability even if the production lead-time is changing over time.

Operational planningYou have the option to use either forward or backward planning when booking resources. Material can be connected to operations, thus minimizing WIP cost for material used later in the production process.

IBS Manufacturing

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In order to optimize machine resources and to minimize waste, it is possible to group manufacturing orders both on header and an operation level. Grouping of manufacturing orders will also reduce the set-up cost (time), thus extending the available machine capacity.

Manufacturing Order documentsThe manufacturing order document can be tailored by manufacturing order type and consists of:

• Operation list

• Pick list

• Operation cards

• Material cards

• Assembly report

• Material list / operation

• Product labels.

Batch numberIf tracking and tracing products in certain batches is critical, it is possible – at the point of manufacturing order creation or product reception – to generate batch numbers automatically according to number series or using masks.

Reserving batches and booking materialFor batch-controlled products, it might be necessary to reserve a certain batch before a pick list is printed. You can reserve batches for the included material in manufacturing order maintenance for the BOM.

Kitting list generation and re-creationOnce a kitting list has been printed, the allocation remains until the order is closed. The material is re-allocated when the kitting list is refreshed, in case components were unavailable at original allocation time.

Manufacturing order pallet handlingIBS Manufacturing lets you create pallets either at the shop floor (document printout and report on pallet), or at manufacturing order reception.

When IBS Warehouse Management is installed, it is possible to create and print pallet labels. You can then use the pallet identity when reporting products to stock, instead of reporting on manufacturing order. You can also create pallets when products are received to stock, through the normal product reception function.

Subcontract operationsIBS Manufacturing supports external production processes within internal processes. An operation can be defined as a subcontract, and a purchase order is created and connected to the manufacturing order from the subcontract operations. When the purchase order is received, the manufacturing order operation will also be updated..

Internal order replenishment (stock requests)The solution provides the ability to create internal order replenishment orders. So, when your manufacturing facility

needs tock to fulfill orders, they can view availability across your distribution centers and choose to order stock internally rather than creating a purchase order to your supplier. All intercompany accounting is handled via internal purchase orders and internal sales orders.

Manufacturing order reportingIBS Manufacturing includes a variety of reporting options, such as PC, workshop terminals or bar code readers. Shop floor reporting includes information such as used, produced and scrapped quantities, reason codes, person-time used, machine resources and other cost elements..

The solution includes facilities for automatically ‘un-booking’ any firmly allocated materials and/or operations, whereby pre-calculated values will be used. Immediately after any reporting, WIP can be analyzed online. Analyses include material, time used and other costs, giving you a simple method for quickly and easily uncovering major deviations between pre-calculated and actual values, and allowing you to take appropriate action.

BackflushingThe system supports backflushing of material with a number of setup options. Backflushing material at operation reporting means that materials that are connected to a specific operation will be issued from stock at completion of the operation. Backflushing at product reception means that material will be issued from stock at the same time that the manufactured products are reported to stock. If the backflushing routine isn’t accepted (the final reporting step), the update will be rolled back.

Operations reportingOperations reporting can be set up to calculate the run labor time and machine time based on reported quantity (approved and scrapped). The run labor time and machine time can be calculated based either on approved and scrapped quantity, or no calculation can be chosen. How the calculation should be made is defined on a work center level. Operations reporting also supports milestone reporting, which means that previously completed operations in a process will automatically be updated.

Manufacturing order material allocationsThe system facilitates status handling on materials. It allows you to open/close manufacturing order material reservations for not fully issued components.

Quality control reportingWith IBS Manufacturing, you can obtain quality control reports for products either in the manufacturing process, at manufacturing reception or for items that are already available in stock.

The quality reporting set-up is based on the conformity group that is connected to one or many products. It consists of a number of criteria that are used to define the values to be used for reporting different processes, such as manufacturing operation reporting. The quality control results are stored in a history file, which can be queried for analysis. The reporting process can also create non-conformity certificates for quantity reported, for example outside a defined criteria or value.

Closed manufacturing order analysisIBS Manufacturing includes functionality for analyzing completed

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IBS Distribution Financials makes any financial process easy-to-manage and totally transparent. The software handles any transaction volume and the range of purchase and sales payment processes, including multiple simultaneous currencies.

It works just as well for multi-warehouse operations across several countries as it does for a wholesale distributor operating a single warehouse. Integrated financial tools manage capital outlays, assets, cash and any other resources required to run a modern distribution business.

The benefitsIBS Distribution Financials has:

• Flexible KPI (key performance indicators) creation (by any variable)

• Multi-currency, multi country, multi-accounting rules

• Part of the integrated family of products in IBS Enterprise.

• Comprehensive functionality for bookkeeping, reconciliation, closing and reporting

• Complete credit, cash, budget, asset and banking management

• Consolidation and group reporting

• Planning tools to improve profitability across the board

• Flexible accounting rules and multi-country tax planning

General LedgerHow you manage your General Ledger reflects (and impacts) how you manage your entire business. IBS General Ledger functionality is designed for efficient, easy-to-use daily accounting that gives the management team the insight it needs to make better decisions.

Now your entire operational performance is clear, transparent and accounted for, including:

Distribution Financials

manufacturing orders, which gives you the ability to find orders with high deviation. You can re-open the order and do reporting adjustments, with the possibility to adjust reported values.

Integration to IBS Planner ViewManufactuing planning and detail planning are accessible via the IBS PlannerView solution and you can also perform a number of updates including:

• Refresh pull-planning proposal

• Change proposal

• Create order (manufacturing and/or purchase order)

• Change manufacturing order quantity, start/completion date, order priority/sequence

• Open a closed manufacturing order

• Change manufacturing order operation priority, sequence or work centre

• Print manufacturing order operation cards

• Reschedule operation

• Reset operation

• Manufacturing operation reporting

• Manufacturing order reception

• Change work centre capacity

• Change proposal.

Manufacturing order block order handlingYou can use this function as a type of ‘contract’ or ‘repetitive manufacturing flow’. It gives you an easy way to create a daily, weekly or monthly manufacturing order with some default values, and also allows you to create a simple reception report with backflushing for both material and operations.

Preventive maintenance and integration to IBS ServiceIBS Service can be used as a fully integrated solution for internal maintenance, and preventive service on machines (work centers) and tools.

The system allows you to connect a service object to a work center or tool. When planning preventive service for a machine (work center), you can reduce the capacity for this work center. When using the calibration functionality for a tool, the system automatically creates a service order when the calibration point is reached.

Activity-oriented product costingIBS Manufacturing gives efficient cost control and follow-up, while providing a wide variety of options to meet demands posed by different manufacturing environments.

Cost price simulation functions compute variations of material, machines, labor and overheads. Alternative manufacturing routes or bills of material can be used for the same product, while still achieving accurate product cost calculation and follow-up.

For each element of the cost calculation, it is possible to use either manually entered values, values calculated by individual algorithms or values from cost tables. Cost simulations can also be performed online, enabling ‘what-if’ cost reporting..

The solution also handles entry and calculations for extremely low-cost products.

Cost calculations can be based on the standard quantity for product costing on produced items, which gives better accuracy. The product costing value saved includes the total bill of material, bill of routing and the overview presentation. This lets you follow how the calculation has been constructed, for current and previous product costs and simulations.

Users can update BOM/BOR (quantities and times) from actual manufacturing, based on manufacturing order statistics (average values). There is a detailed audit trail to track all BOM/BOR changes.

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• Flexible chart of accounts and summary roll-ups enabling rich analysis

• Easy manual and automated transactions

• Parallel transaction-, system- and reporting currencies

• Automatic posting, validation and currency revaluation

• Accruals, recurring journals and standing orders

• Reconciliation

• Unlimited parallel budgets and forecasts

• Cost accounting and cost allocation

• Month-end and Year-end closing procedures.

The software is rich but the concepts are simple: automation, validation and visibility into the entire business.

The benefitsOur General Ledger functionality helps you:

• Monitor business performance minute by minute

• Minimize errors that misinform management and cost money

• Support your business globally in multiple currencies

• Integrate the entire business as part of a complete financial package

Accounts PayableTight control of accounts payable is essential to maintaining successful supplier relationships while optimizing your cash flow. IBS Enterprise can help.

IBS Accounts Payable puts the control in your hands. You decide how you want to manage and monitor every process and configure the software to work your way. Core processes include:

• Business partner set-up – including credit status, payment terms & methods, and partner structure relationships. Business partners include suppliers, customers, partners, competitors – anyone that is part of your supply chain.

• General Ledger Accounting – with expense coding, invoice allocation across accounting periods, revaluation based on currency fluctuation, etc

• Invoice matching – controlling invoice vs. purchase order with automatic calculation of differences with complete workflow to validate the invoices and automatic booking

• Outgoing payments – manage payment dates, countries, currencies & payment methods, plus remittance advice, bank transfers, etc

• Inquiries – aging reports and cash flow analysis, credit control and follow-up, full drill-down...

• Extensive reporting – cash flow and aging analysis; supplier lists and labels; transaction listing, open items, payment statistics, reconciliation and more.

It’s all completely transparent, trackable and auditable to deliver unparalleled levels of management visibility into the entire sub-ledger and its impact on the business.

The benefits• Improve cash flow with precise control of all payables

• Keep suppliers happy with accurate, timely payments

• Automate processes to drive down costs

• Minimize errors that clog up processes

• Protect profits with rule-driven transactions

• Drive down costs through process efficiency

• Enforce policy through every step.

Accounts ReceivableYou can’t make money in wholesale distribution if you’re not getting paid. IBS Accounts Receivable lets you manage and monitor every receivables process including:

• Customer set-up – including credit status, payment terms & methods, and partner structure relationships

• Invoice processing – automatic invoice update, rebate handling, stepwise processing, multiple VAT rates,

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installment payments, etc

• Incoming payments – multi-currency order summary & settlement, batch payments, automated cash allocation, credit note management, automatic posting, etc.

• Drafts and bills handling – manage draft proposals and acceptances, create and remit bills portfolio...

• Credit management – effective credit control, automated hold & release, customer credit profile, re-aging, etc

• Inquiries – aging and cash flow analysis, credit control and follow-up, full drill-down...

• Extensive reporting – cash flow and aging analysis; customer lists and labels; transaction listing, open items, payment statistics, reconciliation and more.

It’s all completely transparent, trackable and auditable to deliver unparalleled levels of management visibility into the entire sub-ledger and its impact on the business.

The benefitsOur Accounts Receivable functionality helps you:

• Improve cash flow with precise control of all receivables

• Minimize bad debts – with tight controls and early warnings

• Keep customers happy with accurate, timely billing

• Automate processes to drive down costs

• Minimize errors that clog up processes

• Protect profits with rule-driven transactions

• Enforce policy through every step

Asset ManagementAsset Management creates efficiency by integrating the financial and physical management of assets.

Modern distribution and wholesale businesses invest to grow and to stay competitive. That investment translates into pick-and-place machines, automated handling systems, laptop computers, and equipment of all shapes and sizes. Large investments can have a profound effect on the financial performance of your business. Assets need to be accounted for correctly for legal and tax-efficiency reasons, but also so that you can analyze their value to your business. Furthermore, assets are only truly assets to your business when used to best effect. You need to know if they are in the right place, correctly insured, that they are serviced correctly.

Controlling assets from a single systemAsset Management lets you control all these things from within your distribution software system because it is integrated with our Enterprise suite.

Financially it enables you to:

• Calculate useful life.

• Work out depreciation.

• Handle leasing, non-tangible assets and financial assets.

• Automatically calculate profit and loss, and update easily for reconciliation.

• Make budget comparisons.

• Plan future investments and depreciation.

• Revalue assets to manage insurance premiums.

With physical control of your assets, Asset Management enables you to:

• Manage inventory lists by location, asset type or project.

• Identify missing assets.

• Number and label assets.

• Sort insurance information by asset or by insurance tables.

• Maintain warranty information.

• Manage service contracts.

• Trigger decision date prompts for renewal of service contracts

Sundry InvoicingWith IBS Sundry Invoicing, even non-standard business can be integrated into your automated workflow.

Every now and then, you do a bit of business that doesn’t quite fit your norm. It adds revenue but it’s frustrating when it costs you more than you earn because the paperwork needs to be customized.

IBS Sundry Invoicing is a module you can build in to your distribution management software that enables you to create non-standard invoices. It grabs data from the system in the same way as our main financials package so you don’t have to worry about typos and the information is guaranteed to be up-to-date.

Information generated in Sundry Invoices automatically updates the relevant customer relations and financial software. Sundry invoices are part of the integrated Enterprise workflow so they are visible across your business like any other invoice.

The software automatically assigns numbers and dates in line with your standard invoicing practice and makes a series of checks to see if the invoice is valid. It also identifies foreign currencies and re-calculates using the correct exchange rate.

Cash flow ManagerHow you can benefit from using the Cash Flow ManagerIBS Planner View software provides a graphical user interface for planning, forecasting, simulation and information management in many business operational areas. The module includes pre-defined applications referred to as roles, which allow you to work with your system information. One of the Financial Management roles is the Cash Flow Manager, which is designed to let you work with the cash flow forecast of a company or company group.

Cash flow information basisThe Cash Flow Manager role gives you a complete overview of your company’s cash flow forecast in a true multi-company environment. This means you can view an aggregated forecast for your company group and drill down to see forecast details on an individual company basis.

The cash flow forecast can be based on actual due dates or on the debtor’s previous payment behavior, as well as on how you previously paid your suppliers. The forecast can be presented in system and reporting currency, in addition to transaction currency.

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The solution lets you retrieve information about expected payments from IBS Enterprise, as well as from non-IBS applications.

Cash flow manager actionsThe Cash Flow Manager role provides you with many possibilities for working with a cash flow forecast.

Starting value - The actual opening balance for your cash and bank accounts is included as a starting value for the cash flow forecast.

Expected payments - Information about expected incoming and outgoing payments is presented in a calendar view, summarized per projected payment date on a monthly, weekly and daily level.

Sales orders, customer invoices and expected payments, purchase orders and supplier invoices, and open payments are collected automatically from IBS Enterprise. This will save you time and also make the cash flow forecast more reliable with less risk for errors due to re-keying data.

You can also add expected payments that might not be found within IBS Enterprise, such as upcoming payrolls, loan installment payments, tax information and other recurring cash expenses. This gives you complete visibility of your company’s cash flow forecast in the same calendar view.

Even if cash flow forecasting is normally performed on a high level, getting a quick look at the underlying details might help you to

judge the reliability of the expected payments. With the Cash Flow Manager role, it’s possible to drill down to view the underlying details of expected payments, such as individual sales orders, A/R or A/P transactions and purchase orders.

Optionally, you can let the forecast present expected payments for open sales and purchase orders, A/R or A/P documents based on due dates or adjusted based on the previous payment behavior of a business partner. This means, for example, if your customer usually pays two days late, the forecast will reflect that; or, if you normally take advantage of favorable cash discounts, the forecast will make sure you reserve the money in advance of the indicated due date.

Forecasting and analysis

You can analyze the cash flow forecast on a monthly, weekly and daily level in transaction, system or reporting currency. System and reporting currency are also revaluated and presented in actual exchange rates.

The application can also show you an aggregated forecast for several companies in the same calendar view.

The Cash Flow Manager role can also help you predict payment behavior. You can analyze, for example, how the previous payment behavior of a business partner has changed or evolved. Or you can find patterns in how your customers have made payments to you or in how you have paid your suppliers.

IBS Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence delivers the information you need to make big improvements to your business processes.

IBS Business Intelligence supports your overall strategy and monitors business operations through a robust, integrated analytic tools called IBS RPM (Real-Performance Manager), IBS PlannerView and IBS Alert Management.

How does it work?IBS Business Intelligence collects and organizes data to provide relevant information for analysis giving you the insight for making

the right decisions in your business operations or changing your business plans. The solution meets requirements for planning, reporting and analysis as well as operational decision support. Special focus is given to specific prerequisites for distribution and wholesale corporations.

Tailored for different usersTo properly see how IBS Business Intelligence can benefit an entire organization, we need to look at how specific users can make faster, better and more accurate decisions.

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Sales Executives have to make quick decisions to help them secure sales and maximize revenues and profit. To do this they need instant access to up-to-date information relating to customers, orders and financial information so they can assess scenarios and identify the required focus of their attention.

Business Managers need to make fast and appropriate operational decisions and operations planning, based on accurate, integrated information from many areas of the business. They need to be able to take a quick view of their scope of information as well as be able to drill down into more detail to take action.

Financial and Business Analysts want the freedom to explore and see fresh perspectives without being constrained by pre-formatted reports built by IT. They need the tools to manage the budget process as well as the ability to secure information from multiple sources and integrate this into spreadsheets or other data analysis applications.

Employees and more Casual Users want to receive and subscribe to scheduled content and reports and be able to personalize them to their specific requirements. Making informed and accurate decisions at this level extends Best Practice procedures throughout the business and helps improve overall operational efficiency.

Customers and Partners want to gain access to relevant information through secure web portals, but with little or no need for training. Controlled and appropriate access from outside parties significantly reduces administration resources and has a direct and positive impact on profitability.

Redefining Performance ManagementPerformance Management has been in practice for decades, spanning years of immense technological and enterprise growth while adopting varied definitions of what true Performance Management really means. Traditional approaches have included a patchwork of loosely integrated software tools intertwined with manual, people-intensive processes, which results in inefficient and ineffective business outcomes. Performance Management is defined by solutions that enable business managers to deliver promised results consistently and assuredly, quarter after quarter.

IBS RPMRedefining Performance Management to Broadenand Extend IBS Distribution IntelligenceIBS products in the Distribution Intelligence area includes solutions for planning, operational monitoring as well as reporting and analysis. IBS has extended its focus on advanced capabilities for Business Intelligence by providing the RPM platform.

Traditional Performance Management

• Highly manual decision-making processes

• Disconnected spreadsheet-type business modeling

• People intensive, prone to inaccuracies

IBS RPM Performance Management

• Combines actual performance with expected/planned performance

• Exercising controls to change future outcomes

• Bi-directional top-down or bottom-up execution

• Performance Management is not just about understanding past performance—it’s about enabling your future success.

Business Intelligence requires an environment capable of providing the capability to continuously adjust the future operational direction based on current performance. This ability to synchronize and fine-tune the planning of operational activities and integrate them into an automated and standardized decision-flow framework are the core elements of our Business Intelligence platform.

A Single, Versatile Platform for Building Performance Management SolutionsThe RPM platform was developed to break down the complex, cross-functional barriers that impede effective business decision-making. Built on a comprehensive model-driven foundation and combined with a robust, web-based analytic environment, RPM provides a complete platform for building Business Intelligence.

Proven Scalability and PerformanceThe RPM platform has been successfully tested in a full spectrum of enterprises -deployment configurations range from very large databases to sophisticated dimensional-schemas and many in between. Some proven examples from actual platform deployments include:

• Large data marts in excess of 10 terabytes in size

• Use of over 130 dimensions within single-production deployment

• Number of active rows in excess of 10 million members

• Daily data processing in excess of 360 million records

• In addition, the platform incorporates in-memory processing, intelligent caching and a broad set of SQL optimizations to ensure rapid query performance

Closed-Loop Performance ManagementRPM is capable of supporting closed-loop Distribution Intelligence applications. Where traditional approaches have fallen short when it comes to automated decision execution, RPM completes the process both flexibly and securely. Capabilities include:

• The ability to write-back to the Analytic Server layer, enables on-the-fly “what-if” analysis in both public and private model modes

• The ability to write-back to the operational system(s) of record closes the loop between planning and execution

Alert ManagementAlert Management lets you know when things go wrong and prevents glitches from becoming catastrophes. You can analyze and understand problems before they cause trouble.

What’s the difference between a good distribution company and a great one?

A good one delivers the right product at the right time and the right price. A great distributor delivers the right product at the right time and the right price even when they are having a bad day.

Alert Management tells you when events in your business are outside your ideal and helps you do something about them. It’s called exception management but, really, it is about expecting the unexpected.

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Alert Management monitors events as they happen within the supply chain. If an event is outside parameters you set, it tells you.

How a text message can save the daySay an order doesn’t turn up. The supplier has had a few problems but hasn’t let you know. If you are running your business lean, then you probably already have customers waiting — it could be disastrous.

Alert Management knows a delivery is expected and when it doesn’t arrive, it sends you a text message. Better than that, it sends an email to the supplier. You can configure who receives which message and in what format.

If the supplier responds with a new delivery date, Alert Management will replan the entire supply chain for you and send your customers a message to warn of the delay.

If an alert or a request to a business partner goes unanswered, an escalation program kicks in. If, for example, the customer services Management at your supplier doesn’t respond within a

couple of days, Alert Management can be configured to send an email to their boss.

Setting ParametersAlert Management is completely configurable. You set the parameters and the communications to suit your way of doing business. And because it is monitoring all the events as they happen, it can also be used to let people know when things are going well.

One of the most important things you can do with this software is analyze trends. If things keep going wrong, it helps you work out why and improves your ability to make business decisions.

Messages can be sent in the following formats:

• Email

• GSM

• SMS

• IBS Enterprise messaging screen

IBS FS&OP is a set of integrated planning, monitoring and management applications that place accurate, real-time information directly into the hands of your key business decision makers. Better decisions means better planning and in turn leads to streamlined business processes, improved customer service and increased profitability. The solution also includes operational planning modules for Demand/Supply/Sales and Operations Planning. Each system provides a powerful standalone solution, but together they give you the up-to-date, accurate information you need to make those critical business decisions that will help you achieve the five key value drivers for distribution profitability:

• Maximized revenues

• Reduced expenses

• Improved margins

• Optimized inventory

• Controlled cash

Key features of IBS FS&OP include:

Continuous Planning EnvironmentA seamless, rolling intersection of actual, as well as planned data, is provided to produce an “on-demand” view of the business going forward. Planners and managers have the ability to update and plan their information at any level to continuously steer the organization in the direction required to meet its operational objectives.

Patent Pending Multi-Plan Alignment and SynchronizationAn innovative approach to aligning and synchronizing multiple plans at all levels of aggregation across the enterprise facilitates a truly holistic view of the forward-facing issues that allow for proactive response and decision-making. Decision-makers at all levels of the organization will benefit from real time information allowing for a higher probability of making the right decision.

Structured Scenario WorkflowThe solution provides a dynamic and collaborative “what-if” analytic environment for efficiently driving informed business decisions at any level of the organization. Analysts and decision makers alike will have the ability to encapsulate “best practice” processes into the overall decision cycle, allowing information to be shared across the organization for a more standard and automated approach.

Comprehensive Analytic CapabilitiesA complete collection of standard analytic capabilities provides maximum data visibility and is easy to use with the end-user community. Users at every level of the organization will embrace the ease of creating analytic workspaces, scenario workflows, alerts, dashboards, indicators and decisions for personal or public consumption.

Enterprise-Class Security and ScalabilityA completely protected platform will integrate into the standardized security architecture of today’s enterprise and will scale as business growth requires. Organizations will also be able to leverage unlimited role-based profiles to provide the most complete user security coverage across multiple models in a single deployment of the platform.

Advanced Sales and Operations Planning SolutionsAdvanced Planning to Broaden and Extend IBS Distribution IntelligenceIBS has taken Sales & Operations Planning to a whole new level with even more advanced capabilities.

Challenging Economics Time Require a “New Normal”Balancing supply and demand has never been more difficult. Organizations are misaligned, planning tools are proving to be

IBS Financial, Sales & Operating Planning

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview22

inadequate and service expectations are skyrocketing. Increased demand volatility and supply chain complexity are driving higher inventory and operating costs, stressing working capital. New buying behaviors and anxiety in the supply chain are wreaking havoc on forecasts and plans. Planners are struggling for new insights as the traditional key indicators and forecasting assumptions are proving inadequate to manage the “new normal” of our challenging economic environment.

IBS orchestrates S&OP by providing a world-class solution and a proven approach powered by next generation technology.

• Provides End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility across Data Sources

– Advanced S&OP Solution unites disparate data silos to provide a single, end-to-end view across the supply chain

– Maintains a “Single Version of Truth,” but provides contextual views of the business combining each function’s point of view

• Enables the Collaborative Development of the Operational Plan

– Aligns and synchronizes plan, forecast and historical information

– Advanced S&OP enables the development of consensus plan by gathering inputs from all the stakeholders

– Monitors Plan and Actuals to allow for proactive response to issues

• Shapes Demand and Supply to Meet Targets

– Uses demand and supply constraints and plans

– Allows for smoother procurement signals

• Bridges the Financial and Operational Plan

– Advanced S&OP Solution leverages operational data and aligns it with the financial plan

– Connects the “top-down” management with the “bottom-up” execution

– Allows “what-if” analysis to show financial impact of operational changes or vice versa

• Unites Multiple Data Sources to Provide a Single View of Business

– Advanced S&OP Solution aligns data from multiple data streams to provide a synchronized view

– Provides contextual views to each business function: but referencing the “Single Version of Truth”

• Interactive “What-If” Simulation and Scenario Management

– Users can create “what-if” scenarios and immediately analyze its impact on other elements in the supply chain

– Various scenarios can be compared against each other across multiple, user-chosen metrics

– In-Built collaboration and decision workflow to route scenarios for approval and close the decision loop

• Flexibility in Modeling, Workflow and Reporting

– Flexible hierarchies and data measures

– Codeless configuration framework to support business specific reports, metrics and workflows

– Supports S&OP workflows at any level of granularity

(Aggregate/Detail)

• Performance and Scalability

– Advanced S&OP Solution is built on a patented RPM platform, which has proven its performance, scalability and reliability applications with large data volumes

End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility• KPIs and Metrics

– Rich dashboard and charts to monitor key supply chain metrics, such as those advocated by the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) Model

– Alerting capabilities to support “manage by exception” philosophy

– Insightful analysis into the data such as trends, patterns and changes

• Build Consensus Operational Plan through Collaboration

– FS&OP provides the mechanism to collaborate with customers and suppliers signals

– Detect and respond to contradictions between customer signals and internal plan

• Shape Demand and Supply Understanding Constraints and Available Levers

– Visibility into both Demand Constraints and Supply Constraints

– Scenario creation and analysis to assist in demand and supply shaping to close gap

• What-If Scenarios and Closing the Decision Loop

– Allows authorized users to create and evaluate scenarios

– Scenarios can be collaborated upon and routed for approval

– Approved changes are written back to operational system, thus closing the decision loop

Planner ViewPlanner View enables your people to visualize information and to plan their work more effectively.

Every wholesale distribution business needs its people pulling same direction. This is true for a single warehouse or a global network of companies. And for your people to work well, they need to know what’s going on.

Planner View is adaptable software that grabs data from within your organization and presents it in different ways to different people according to role. It allows them to plan their workload and resources more effectively.

For example, people in the warehouse can use Planner View to see a graph of purchase orders. This tells them what deliveries to expect, together with weights and volumes. This allows them to plan the day ahead. If heavy items are expected they can book forklifts. Or they might clear storage space in anticipation of bulky products.

Planner view provides smooth running of your business, spotting bottlenecks or potential shortages in supply and sorting them out before they become a problem.

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Integration with other planning softwareBecause Planner View is integrated within the Enterprise suite, it can work with a range of other modules. You can forecast demand using Demand Planning, or plan your sales activities using Sales and Operations Planning. Planner View gives you a variety of intuitive ways to aid and speed understanding.

• Browser view enables you to create web or intranet pages

• Pivot view is like a spreadsheet and enables you to export to Excel or convert data into a graph.

• Calendar view enables you to see workloads or capacities across time.

• Collection enables allows you to pick a component and see the data that relates to it from different sources (sales info, customers, delivery schedules, for example).

• Detail view enables you to drill into the information you hold.

• Gantt view enables you to plan tasks to a calendar and see the interdependency of different activities.

• Task list view enables someone to see the tasks allocated to them, or to other resources.

All these can be customized but they also work great in their default mode.

Helping people in their different rolesAs well as helping warehouse people, Planner View can be used:

• For sales order management and customer relations

• To manage cash flow

• To plan manufacture and assembly

• For project management

• To handle purchase orders and procurement

• For planning service management.

Demand PlanningIBS Demand Planning is supply chain planning software that allows you to create the most accurate forecasts possible. The solution takes into account information from demand and sales history, along with up-to-date sales and marketing activities.

When you calculate forecasts for existing products that have clear trends and seasonal patterns, it’s usually sufficient to look only at demand history. However, when demand is inconsistent or new – e.g., market segments, products, distribution centers, customer demands or promotional programs – you need to collaborate demand, sales and budget information in order to gain accurate forecasts.

IBS Demand Planning can be used as a marketing and sales driven forecasting application that runs together with IBS Inventory Control. The solution can also run in conjunction with two other planning modules, IBS Sales and Operation Planning (aggregate planning over time) and IBS Supply Planning (including distribution resource planning – DRP), as part of a more comprehensive planning and forecasting solution with IBS Enterprise.

Designed for dynamic requirementsWith IBS Demand Planning, you can rapidly update, manage and review sales figures to build precise sales forecasts based on the market. You can create or revise a demand plan at any time.

Fast visual resultsAn intuitive graphical user interface streamlines the planning process with multiple windows and details that allow drill-down. A supporting planner’s workbench lets you view, manipulate and update planning data from different perspectives and diverse formats such as pie charts and other graphs, providing a clear overview of planning forecasts with simulations and analyses.

Built-in authority handlingIBS Demand Planning supports the internal review and delegation of supported demand plans. The solution ensures full security among users; for example, several sales employees can update or maintain the same plan without seeing each other’s figures.

Multi-dimensional forecastingIBS Demand Planning gives you the ability to produce multi-dimensional forecasts at different aggregation levels – from the bottom up or from the top down. Gain extreme flexibility in meeting your planning demands by aggregating forecasts from various dimensions:

• Market dimension – By country, region and/or customer.

• Time dimension – By months, weeks and/or days.

• Production dimension – By family, group and/or products.

Six different demand plans availableIBS Demand Planning lets you generate different types of demand plans that you can fine-tune and use to create forecasts that take account of external information.

Campaigns plan

This plan handles further sales based on adding planned campaign numbers to the forecast calculation.

Normal demand plan

Input is the statistical forecast, which you can manually adjust as needed based on capacity problems, shortages of goods or other factors. The updated demand plan is transmitted to statistical forecast calculations.

Budget plan

Import sales statistics or the statistical forecast to budget sales on all levels. The plan updates the IBS Business Information Warehouse for subsequent follow-up of sales numbers measured against the budget. This plan does not affect forecast calculation.

Speculation forecast

Use this plan for new products that have no historical information in IBS Inventory Control. The forecast numbers are then added to the forecast calculation.

Additional forecast

This plan allows you to make exceptions for selected criteria; for example, for selected large customers. Your Demand Planning figures are then replacing the statistical forecast calculated in Inventory Control for these selected customers; at the same time, Inventory Control calculates the statistical forecast for the remaining customer base.

Item based

Use this plan in conjunction with the statistical forecast calculated by Inventory Control. Tools within IBS Demand Planning are available to use as an advanced method for maintaining and adjusting the statistical forecast. This type of plan has no customer-related information.

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Supply PlanningWhen forecasting has been defined, the next step is to perform detail planning for replenishment by using IBS Supply Planning. This software offers a mixture of planning methods to help you find the best inventory position, where the potential for material shortage is well-balanced with the need to minimize on-hand inventories and lead-times.

IBS Supply Planning is required to achieve well-balanced warehousing in a multiple plant/warehouse environment, or if you are a manufacturer who needs to schedule material and resources against calculated demand figures. In those cases, this IBS solution is the best tool to help you decide what to stock, when – and where.

How it works with other IBS modules IBS Supply Planning runs together with the IBS Inventory Control module. As demand figures are the base for supply planning, it’s also recommended to run IBS Supply Planning in conjunction with IBS Demand Planning and/or IBS Sales and Operation Planning. These modules offer a fully integrated, comprehensive planning and forecasting solution that includes demand forecast and capacity constraints analysis. This combined functionality can help you reduce overall inventory while meeting the expectations of your customers.

Real-time replenishment IBS Supply Planning calculates which stock (on an item level) needs replenishment and where (on a warehouse level). It is decided on item level in combination with warehouse level if the item is to be included in a supply plan. Calculations take all relevant data into account, such as safety stock, stock on hand, demand history, current sales promotion profiles, purchase levels and service levels.

Only one Supply Plan is active at the same time, and this active version is considered when purchase suggestions are created or when MRP is run.

Built with usability in mind To quickly find the most urgent demand lines, you can sort all of them according to cover time, including a shortage code that defines the priority. This lets you determine if actual demand is based on real customer demand or just refilling of safety stock.

All planning periods are user-defined; for example, it’s possible to define the nearest period as a week, the next period as two weeks and future periods as a month. It’s easy to manually adjust the supply plan and to copy plans to new versions that can be used as simulation versions.

Pro-active planning with DRPIBS Enterprise handles standard reorder point (ROP) replenishment with automatic purchase suggestions based on real-time inventory, sales history, lead-times and master data from all transactions.

For optimized inventory control on a hierarchy level, IBS Supply Planning can provide distribution replenishment planning (DRP) – in addition to ROP replenishment for fast-moving or volume goods. For each item segment, you can choose a replenishment structure (ROP or DRP) that best fits your operations.

DRP is plan-oriented, and by analyzing requirements per period into the future, you can identify all expected replenishment needs, from suppliers as well as internal supplies. Replenishment is calculated against real demand instead of re-ordering points: when dealing with expensive goods, or goods with long lead-times, this method can provide considerable financial gain.

Balanced production planningIBS Supply Planning lets you balance ‘assembly lines moving’ with ‘minimizing inventory on hand’ for production planning. The IBS solution uses bill of material data, inventory data and capacity requirement to calculate requirements for materials.

Fully integrated system IBS Supply Planning is a comprehensive, fully integrated solution, which means it can automatically perform interconnected or dependent tasks. The solution will, for example, recommend new and rescheduled orders as well as perform automatic rescheduling of scheduled assemblies, based on the availability of component and resources.

As a further benefit of system integration, the solution provides you with the Inventory, Purchasing, Manufacturing, and Shop Floor controls that you need to effectively communicate available-to-promise information between all departments and provide premier service to your customers.

The IBS solution is integrated with DRP to give you and all of your company’s end-users excellent visibility, along with accurate traceability of calculated values.

Fast visual results To improve usability, IBS Supply Planning includes fields such as cover time and shortage codes. Together with an easy-to-use graphical user interface, these codes streamline the planning process with multiple windows and details that allow drill-down.

A supporting planner’s workbench lets you view, manipulate and update planning data from different perspectives and diverse formats such as pie charts and other graphs, providing a clear overview of planning forecasts with simulations and analyses.

IBS Planner View provides an adaptable, graphical and operational workbench for Supply Planning that improves visibility and efficiency.

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IBS Supply Chain Integration & CollaborationIBS Supply Chain Integration & Collaboration technology connects your systems, applications and data inside and outside your business.

As the size of distribution resource management projects grow, wholesale distributors must avoid project implementation slowdowns caused by:

• Poor integration with other internal applications and data

• Poor quality control of customer- and partner-supplied data

• System outages caused by data handling issues

IBS Supply Chain Integration & Collaboration software:• Replicates and converts data between most known

databases

• Maps, tests and manages external data sources from trading partners and customers

• Reads, creates and converts text data from XML, MS Excel or any other format

• Creates SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) solutions with web services

• Automates and optimizes business processes and routines

• Facilitates stakeholder communication, collaboration and process synchronization

• Secures all forms of communication and protects your vital data

The benefits• Faster ERP and SCM project implementations

• Full integration with external data sources, including over the Internet

• High quality data assurance across every business process

• Much lower system downtime

IBS IntegratorIn wholesale distribution, no software is an island. IBS Integrator is a powerful tool to manage systems integration and data management, replication and synchronization. It’s based on an open, flexible architecture that simplifies the way IBS Enterprise interacts with your existing applications, servers and databases.

As a comprehensive development environment, IBS Integrator uses visual scripting to accelerate integration (with more than 250 functions built in). Te result is an integration workbench that’s amazingly powerful but easy to set up and start using. The highlights:

• Advanced data management – connect with all popular databases for high-volume transactions; simplified, visual data mapping and translation

• Internet functionality – communicate with email, FTP, HTML files, SOAP, Telnet, browser scripts...

• Web services and XML – to connect with legacy systems in any format, re-use code and re-configure new services on the fly

• Communicator queues – IBS Communicator tools let you set up an Integrator network to configure transaction and message switching and synchronize across several companies and countries.

• Excel data manipulation – access any system, grab the data you need and load it into your Excel model or workbook.

• MQ Series and Lotus Notes – Connect with IBM’s MQ Series and Lotus Notes/Domino with a full range of functions and statements

• eSite or servlets – the built in web development tool lets you create web apps that access any information in the company

• Power System (iSeries - AS/400) – Set up and handle Data Areas and Data Queues, read spooled files and execute programs and commands.

• Crypto – All the encryption techniques you need, built in

• Java classes – Object-oriented programming gives you full access to Java libraries and components. Toggle between the script language and Java in the Design Studio.

• Logging and debugging –especially useful for notification during overnight data replication

The benefits IBS Integrator will help you:

• Leverage all your data for full insight and performance

• Get more from your current investments

• Streamline processes with automated integrations

• Improve decision-making with an enterprise-wide, integrated view

• Support your business globally across all legacy systems

IBS NetStoreThis is the Internet era. Your customers shouldn’t have to call you up to complete an order, check availabilities or find out your prices.

IBS NetStore is a complete e-commerce application that gives your customers and sales teams direct access to your catalogs, your data and your systems. The result: fast, no-touch ordering; lower cost of sale; and extended reach into new markets.

Highlights• Present as many catalogs as you like

• Customers can browse, search, query and order online

• Custom pricing, terms and availability for each customer

• Full-featured shopping cart for order line entry

• Personal and public shopping lists

• Customers view orders, quotes, queries and account status

• Site creation is simple and fast, with multi-language support

• Complete, web-based administration

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview26

The benefitsIBS NetStore helps you:

• Reach out to new markets on the Internet

• Connect your customers and sales teams to your systems

• Be available worldwide, round the clock

• Streamline order taking

• Enable customer self-service on the web

IBS Mobility SolutionsAccess your systems any time, any place, anywhereThe way we work and the way we run our businesses has dramatically shifted. In less than a few decades, the amount of processing power and data storage we can now hold in one hand used to fill an entire aircraft hangar. As a result, people want the freedom to work on their own terms. They expect to connect, communicate and manage their business from any location and this makes them much more responsive and productive. IBS has introduced a range of services and applications that bring IBS Enterprise to you wherever and whenever you are. On your smartphone, tablet or laptop, in your home, garden or even at school sports day, you can have instant, secure access to the information and functionality you need to serve your customers more effectively and keep your business ahead of the competition.

Power in Your HandsTo many people, mobility means being able to access what information you want from different devices at different times with different (or no) network connections. If you can’t get the information that you want immediately and easily, the likelihood is you will simply not bother.

In the business world, new mobile initiatives are driven by creating opportunities to improve customer service, streamline the supply chain and generate faster, accurate and more effective decision making. The concept of business mobility is designed to make organizations more cost efficient and profitable, with less time-consuming paper work and administration, higher productivity, shorter lead times, fewer errors and better customer service.

We know our customers want all the functionalities they enjoy with IBS Enterprise, but they expect they can access it from any place at any time. IBS Mobility brings this with a modern, easy-to-use solution for application development, management and distribution. IBS Mobility provides a ‘Build once - Deploy many’ capability that gives you an efficient, simple and cost-effective mobile application delivery solution for IBS Enterprise.

The solution has been developed from its very core to meet the mobility demands of the market. Our strategy has been to transform complex and processor-heavy backend functionality to suit lean consumption on mobile

What’s the IBS Mobility Solution?If mobile applications are not easy to find, download, install and operate, they simply won’t be used. To meet this challenge, IBS has adopted a standard-based approach, using Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) enabled interfaces and Open Web technologies. We have also developed non-disruptive enablement of product backend systems to ensure we maximize the power and functionality we can extract from the main systems without impacting performance or compromising

on service. In addition, our platform agnostic backend enablement methodology allows us to mobilize multiple backend applications, such as web services, API’s and databases.

For field mobility customers, return on investment is achieved through improved management of customer information, people and financials. To meet this demand, IBS Mobility Solutions delivers:

• Mobile enablement of existing applications

• Mobile platform-agnostic apps

• Management of devices and apps

• Mobile App testing and platform certification

• Accelerated enterprise mobile solution

• Positive user experience of the apps

• Accelerated and guided back-end migration

• Develop once, deploy on multiple targets

• Testing and certification of apps

Enhanced Working ExperienceOur Mobility Solutions are designed to enhance the working experience for individual operators. For example, specific applications for delivery drivers include total route delivery information and customer addresses with detailed driving instructions via Google maps. Field service engineers can increase productivity and volume of service calls through mobile access for work scheduling, inventory management (including find the nearest spare parts dealer) and mobile sales.

Other solutions focused on improving distribution operations throughout your organization include dedicated mobile apps for Proof of Delivery, Requests and Returns and Alert Management.

We also have mobility enablement so your customers can increase their commitment and loyalty to your business.

These applications include mobile access to detailed product information, electronic signatures for approvals, push reports of possible delivery problems, shipment planners and online shipment delivery and fleet status.

IBS Output SolutionsHow your quotations, order confirmations and other documents look says a lot about you as a company. IBS Output Solutions software makes it easy to produce professional, high-quality documents quickly and cost effectively. So you’re always presenting the best possible face of your company – while streamlining processes and controlling costs.

The highlights:• Produce professional, laser-printed documents, emails and

pdf files

• Customize your layouts, fonts, logos, graphics, etc

• Integrate barcode label printing

• Customize documents for each customer

• Simultaneously print, email, fax or print

• Store documents electronically

• Professionalize all relevant documentation from order

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confirmations, and pick lists to invoices, POS, quotes, reminders, etc

• Simple, WYSIWYG design tool – no programming required

The benefits IBS Output Solutions help you:

• Present a professional look to all customers and partners

• Never run out of forms

• Save money, trees and storage space

• Streamline and automate output processes

• Drive down costs while impressing customers

WorkflowIBS workflow provides your organization with a single web-based tool to streamline and control document intensive processes such as AP processing. You will be able to easily define these processes which will then be controlled and monitored by the process owners. This means everyone will have one inbox of all tasks they need to work on so they can efficiently get the process completed.

IBS Workflow powered by Medius adds workflow capabilities to the Enterprise system. The process owners can enforce processes, keep track of status and improve daily operations. Ready to use modules and a Workflow Studio to design custom processes allows companies to provide better process support, monitor and evaluate processes and ensure costs are reduced while keeping efficiency high.

The current economic conditions are changing supply chains beyond recognition from what we have known until now. When once the manufacturer/producer dictated what was made when and for how much, today the consumer dictates everything including the price. When once the manufacturer was not so far away, today they are often on the other side of the world, making distribution, logistics and supply of goods a sophisticated and networked challenge.

It used to be that a distribution center’s main function was holding inventory. That is no longer true. Today’s distribution center (DC) is a hub in the demand-driven supply chain, and the big challenge is in keeping inventory levels as low as possible, inbound and outbound material flows balanced, and value-added service-levels high. Time has also changed. What used to take weeks is no longer acceptable, and now has to be days or hours.

These shorter time-frames have not resulted in lower service expectations; in fact quite the opposite. Greater added-value service is expected, more product variety, more conditioning and more customer specific handling, all of which can add complexity and cost to operations. Inventory strategies such as postponement, kitting and light assembly are now a matter of course.

To reduce cost and cash needs, every link in the supply chain strives to reduce inventory levels. But that can also lead to challenges. Any error in quantity, quality or timing has an immediate effect on the supply chain. This spurred the adoption of advanced quality strategies, such as TQM and Six Sigma, in an attempt to minimize the effects of low ‘fault tolerance’. Close cooperation between supply, manufacturing and delivery is critical, and the borders between the manufacturing plant and the distribution center are disappearing.

And then there is compliance. In today’s increasingly regulated markets, full traceability of products throughout the supply chain is often a legislative requirement. Regulations from governments on health, safety, security and environment impose additional constraints on the operational processes and their associated costs. Assured compliance and adherence to quality standards are now mandatory, and the challenge (and cost) of implementing such processes is not one that can be ignored.

Never has the supply chain, and, in particular, the distribution

functions within it, had to grapple with such complexity. The DCs of today have changed beyond recognition from those of just a few years ago. Now it is the large, sophisticated, twenty-four hour, lights-out DC that is becoming commonplace across industries. Such centers require advanced information technology and flexible software systems, from companies that understand distribution, in order to run. That software is IBS Advanced Warehouse & Operations Management. We call it simply IBS Dynaman, part of IBS Enterprise.

IBS Dynaman is an advanced solution that supports critical warehouse operations. It increases the velocity of material flows and enables advanced strategies for value-added services. IBS understands the challenges many companies are facing on their way to operational excellence and offers IBS Dynaman as a solution. This advanced warehouse & operations management system combines 15 years of experience with state-of-the-art technology.

Complete process controlIBS Dynaman gives companies full control over their warehouse and distribution center operations. It ensures strict process control, accurate data capturing and complete visibility across the boundaries of manufacturing and distribution. Due to its open architecture, it allows easy integration with the operations of supply chain partners.

Inbound• Arrival management: with the use of ASN (Advanced

Shipping Notice) early identification of inbound shipments allows you to plan and control the goods from departure at your suppliers’ premises until physical arrival at your site.

• Reception: the physical receiving of goods can be authorized by a purchase order or an arrival. Reception may involve inspection of the goods, quality control and the registration of additional information, for instance best¬before-date lot or serial number. Additional conditioning facilitates further processing of the goods.

• Put-away: the destination of the received goods in the inventory is controlled by put away rules. They also support cross-docking, to reduce handling. Other advanced strategies are close-to-pick-location or by rotation class.

IBS Dynaman

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Storage• Location management: fixed locations as well as floating

locations are supported.

• Replenishment: replenishment in IBS Dynaman is rule-based and offers the same flexibility as the put-away and picking modules. Replenishment can be combined with put-away or picking tasks in task interleaving.

• Counting: to ensure inventory accuracy, different counting strategies can be applied: by location group, product group or rotation class. In a batch counting strategy, the items or locations are periodically counted as a separate operation. Inline counting is performed during the regular picking, put-away and replenishment activities, and can be triggered by a number of events, for instance when the theoretical inventory is zero or when the number of pickings on a location has exceeded a threshold. Any discrepancies between theoretical and physical inventory, detected during task execution is automatically registered on a lost & found location for further investigation.

• Inventory tracking: inventory can be tracked by item, expiry date, lot or even serial no. These parameters can be used to control the material flow through the warehouse.

OutboundIBS Dynaman offers complete support for the most demanding pick-pack-ship activities. The following key processes are supported:

• Wave management: in order to control the picking process, waves can be created based on rules that take into account the route planning, due date and other relevant criteria. This ensures smooth picking operations in line with the shipping process. Different picking strategies are supported: batch picking, picking by zone or by order, and in sequence picking.

• Picking: picking rules determine where goods are picked. Multiple approaches are possible, for instance best fitting quantity, first in first out (FIFO) or first-expires-first-out (FEFO). This gives great control over the outbound material flow, reduces handling and ensures compliance with customer requests. During the picking process, value added services can be performed: customer specific label application or kitting for instance.

• Packing, consolidation and staging: depending on the picking strategy (by zone, by order, etc.) it may be required to pack the goods after picking. System guided packing and consolidation ensures a timely, complete and damage-free shipment preparation.

• Loading and shipping: shipments can be composed based on a number of criteria such as due date, route, total volume and weight of the goods. After shipment creation, the goods can be staged and loaded in the reverse order of delivery.

Task managementTasks drive the operations in the warehouse. All main warehouse processes are task controlled, and the system automatically assigns the tasks to the proper worker and equipment, depending on the priority, availability of the worker and equipment, current location in the warehouse, .Advanced strategies in task assignments, such as task interleaving, are supported to maximize the efficiency of the operations.

Value-added activitiesInline value-added servicesInline value-added services involve activities that are executed during put-away, replenishment or picking. Typical applications are: customer specific labeling, capturing quality information (for instance for perishable goods), repacking, price-tagging, ...The use of rules allows to trigger value-added services based on a number of criteria, such as product properties, the pallet or box type, the location or the business partner, to name a few.

Offline value-added servicesOffline value-added services involve operations that are executed as a work order on a separate work center. During the operations, components are consumed and output is created. Typical applications are kitting, build-to-order, assembly and light manufacturing.

IBS Dynaman provides you with real-time information on offline value-added services: material consumption, setup & processing time, and scrap. Root causes for degraded performance can be tracked to improve overall equipment effectiveness.

IBS Dynaman supports the most complex transformation processes, and enforces compliance to government regulations or customer quality standards.

• Bill of material and routing management: the bill of material contains all information on the parts required and the finished products of the production process. IBS Dynaman supports multiple inputs and outputs to the production process, which enables complex processes as disassembly. The routing indicates which operations have to be performed in which order. This contains specific operator instructions, setup information, tooling required.

• Work order scheduling: work orders can be scheduled and dispatched to various work centers, to ensure maximum efficiency and minimal delays.

• Material issue: delivering the right parts at the right time to a work station reduces idle time and scrap. Advanced supply strategies such as Kanban, reorder point or JIT (just-in-time) are commonplace.

• Machine integration: by establishing a direct machine interface, manual configuration of the machine is avoided. This reduces setup time and scrap, and increases net available time.

• Time registration: IBS Dynaman supports real-time time registration, with reason codes. This allows for tracking of the performance of machines and operators, and the identification of root causes of degraded overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

• Consumption: to track the inventory in detail, and to allow for efficient replenishment of parts towards the work station, different consumption approaches can be used: piece-by-piece tracking, back-flushing and two bin are just a few examples.

• Output registration: with current pressure on inventory, the accurate identification of inventory all through the production process is a challenge. With IBS Dynaman the production output can be registered at each operation. This allows for real-time tracking of work-in-process (WIP) inventory. During output registration, quality control can be performed. Each piece can be tracked on lot no. or serial no., to ensure compliance with the most stringent regulations.

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Features for advanced functionsPublic warehouseLogistics service providers have specific needs with regard to warehouse management. This is covered by the following features in IBS Dynaman:

• Multi-owner: provides support for public warehouses that hold inventory for multiple owners.

• Activity registration: this permits logistics service providers to track the activities performed for each owner. Activities can be linked to tasks (put-away, picking), but also other activities such as labeling, cleaning and palletizing can be registered. This provides also valuable information for activity based costing.

• Billing: based on the activities and the inventory by owner billing information can be prepared.

Advanced functions Out of the box, IBS Dynaman supports the following advanced functions:

• Multi-site

• Cartonization: this involves the calculation of target containers prior to picking. In this calculation, the cubic volume and weight are used to obtain the most optimal container for picking.

• Dock & yard management: IBS Dynaman has a module for yard management to manage the goods while they are still in the trailer on your yard. With dock management, you can schedule the loading and unloading activities at the docks. This ensures a good utilization of your infrastructure.

• Cross-docking: to minimize handling and reduce inventory, the goods are often immediately transferred from the inbound docks to the outbound staging area. Next to that, soft cross-docking, with goods immediately transferred to the picking zone, is another valuable functionality.

• Labor management: tracking performance of the work force and managing the work load by area and equipment are essential in operational efficiency.

• Multi-level container handling: allows you to track the inventory on pallet level, in the box or even in nested packaging.

• Returnable packaging: allows you to keep track of pallets and other types of containers delivered to your customers.

Transparency in operationsVendor managed inventory (VMI)With this concept, the vendor takes responsibility of the inventory at the customer site. The combination of EDI and a multi-owner inventory setup allows for an efficient implementation. The ownership of the inventory can be transferred at receipt, issue to production or at delivery. This refinement enables management of consignment stock.

Build-to-order (BTO)In a build-to-order strategy, finished goods are made on order and immediately picked and shipped after production. IBS Dynaman allows planned direct delivery from the production line,

but also supports opportunistic shipping from the production line, similar to cross-docking.

Direct line feed (DLF)Direct line feed is the strategy to deliver components from the reception area directly to the work center. It is often used for high-volume, low-value items.

Supply-in-line sequence (SILS)Supply-in-line sequence is the process of delivering the parts and subassemblies in the right configuration, just-in-time and in the same sequence at the point of fit of the assembly line. This advanced strategy is often applied in the automotive and aerospace industry. IBS Dynaman allows these companies to synchronize their logistics and assembly processes.

Reverse logisticsWith current environmental regulations, the reverse logistics are becoming a major concern for many companies. IBS Dynaman supports the return of goods from customers, inspection and disassembly of these goods for further processing.

Operations dashboardIn complex operations, overview is key to control your processes. The IBS Dynaman operations dashboard allows you to have a visual overview of a number of key areas in your operations, zoom in to problem areas and to interact real-time with your operations. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your operations. Typical applications are:

• Visualization of the yard and docks, where you can make shipment appointments and control the progress of loading and unloading.

• Visualization of picking zones, where you can control bottlenecks and assign workers when deadlines have to be met.

• Visualization of an assembly line, where you can identify work order progress and scrap, and review the operational efficiency.

Flexible rules engineIBS understands that continuous improvement, ever more demanding customers, and changing product portfolios are just a few of the forces that drive change in the warehouse processes, meaning no two warehouses are the same. IBS Dynaman’s flexible rules engine ensures your processes fit like a glove. It allows you to define how materials should flow, what workflows are needed and when they should be invoked.

Rule engineThe embedded rule engine allows you to take fine-grained control of the material flow in the warehouse. It is currently implemented in the following process areas:

• Put-away

• Replenishment

• Counting

• Picking

• Wave management

IBS Supply Chain Software – Overview30

• Dock & yard management

• Value-added services

It allows you to add, change or remove material flows through your facility.

Workflow EngineIn complex operations, emphasis should be on a workflow tailored for the job at hand. This increases efficiency, reduces errors and is an important aspect of user satisfaction. It gives a warehouse additional flexibility in hiring temporary staff and reduces training cost. The IBS Dynaman workflow engine lets the application fit as a glove. Starting from the standard workflow, custom workflows can be defined that contain specific screen sets with an optimized field layout and custom buttons, all without custom development. If a workflow, based on standard business functions, can be defined, it can be implemented.

IBS Distribution Financials is a fully-fledged, integrated financial package tailored for the demands of distribution. It caters for all aspects of the business accounting process, and provides all the tools you need to efficiently handle the complete financial flow. As a result, you benefit from tight control of margin, revenue, expenses and cash.

IBS Supply Chain Integration connects systems, applications and data both inside and outside your business. Using the latest service-orientated (SOA) standards, IBS Supply Chain Integration, enables fast and accurate communication with your business partners and streamlines business processes and administration, meaning lower transaction costs and increased customer service levels.

IBS Supply Management helps you better manage everything associated with the supply side of your distribution processes from purchasing and payments, through to goods receiving and goods returns. Ultimately it ensures you provide the best possible customer service with the lowest cost of goods sold.

IBS Distribution Intelligence is a set of integrated distribution-focused business intelligence tools for the planning, monitoring, management and improvement of your distribution processes. Better decisions with IBS Distribution Intelligence means better planning, streamlined and effective business processes, improved customer service and ultimately increased profitability.

IBS Demand Management helps you better manage every aspect of the demand side of your distribution function, from selling to the customer through to the management of returns. IBS DM is designed to help your organization acquire and retain the most profitable customers, while increasing sales and reducing the time spent on costly administrative tasks.

IBS Logistics, Assembly and Service ensures you make the most of your warehouse space, logistics staff productivity, manufacturing and assembly lines and after-sales service processes. The system provides the scalable means to run your warehouse and logistics operations at the least cost, the highest service levels, and under the most rigorous controls.

IBS EnterpriseIBS Enterprise is the only major Distribution Resource Management software system designed and developed by Distribution experts. It comprises six key areas that deliver Distribution Excellence and help you meet the requirements of the five critical value drivers for distribution profitability.

•Raisingrevenue

•Maximizingmargins

•Minimizingcosts

•Improvinginventory

•Increasingcash

www.ibs.net

IBS Australia Pty LtdLevel 3, 12 Waterloo RoadMacquarie Park NSW 2113,Australia

Phone: +61 1300 882 467Email: info@ibs.net

APAC region

International Business Systems US90 Blue Ravine Road,Folsom, CA 95630,USA

Phone: +1-916-985 3900Email: info@ibs.net

Americas region

IBS Sverige ABP.O. Box 1350,Hemvärnsgatan 8,SE-171 26 Solna,Sweden

Phone: +46-8-627 23 00Email: info@ibs.net

EMEA Region(Corporate Headquarters)

About IBS: With over 30 years of experience, IBS is a leading provider of distribution management solutions. IBS focuses on industries such as automotive, electrical components, paper & packaging and pharmaceutical distribution. More than 4,000 customers across some 40 countries use IBS software to gain fast and measurable returns on IT investments. For more information, please visit www.ibs.net © IBS 2012-2013